There are loads of different deck-building games out there, Hellcard is one of them that I really enjoy. In this blog I tell you about the game, what I enjoy about it or might miss. The game was in early acces for quite a while and finally had its full release on February 1st 2024.
About Hellcard
Hellcard is a cooperative roguelike deck-builder that can be played in both singleplayer and multiplayer modes
During the game, you and your character progress trough a dungeon. Everything is in paper dungeon style. Every dungeon floor has different enemies and mechanics. Though this dungeon you, and maybe your friends if you play multiplayer, will face hordes of enemies containing painful elites and unforgiving bosses. Defeat these by making and keeping a strong deck. Play up to three players in co-op or just play singleplayer. The game is turn-based per side and the heroes always start. Enemies declare their actions, so in the player round you can see what they are planning to do. You can play this game on steam.
You can play standard (12 floors) or endless mode (survive as long as you can). There are four playable classes and you can unlock new outfits for each. These are class options;
- Warrior
- Rogue
- Mage
- Warrior
Playing Hellcard
I have played different deck-building games, online as well as offline. I like that Hellcard has cooperative options and have played with friends but also solo and like both. The paper dungeon style is something I really like. The overall vibe is dark and fits the dungeon theme. In early acces there were three classes to play, tinkerer released with the full game. I thought this would bore me out easily, but it did not. I did love the addition of tinkerer anyway and hope there will be more classes coming. In between battles we can do our regular upgrades, options depend on the room you chose to go to on that level. You can upgrade or remove cards, get new cards, new artifacts, heal and more. All classes have their own mechanic and there are different build options for each. It took me a few runs to figure out the builds I like to go for. You can nearly endlessly combine card and external effects and artifacts. After each run you can unlock things, like new cards.
Difficulty
To make it a little more difficult, if you succeeded in standard, your next run with the same class you can choose a torment modifier. This is a negative effect, you can unlock different ones and stack them. Like losing life every turn or getting random status cards on kill. I havent found out if there is a max torment and what it would be. Hellcard is not an easy game but when you get used to it and have played a little, it is really fun to make it a little harder this way. Another way to make it harder is endless mode, where you just play as long as you manage to survive. The hardest about this for me is keeping the deck balanced. At some point I choose wrong, me deck does not work that well anymore and that costs me the game. I have played untill floor 25-30 somewhere and will definitely try again and again.
Check out my blog about Asterix & Obelix Heroes if you are interested. This is a deck-building adventure game where you play a team of your favorite Asterix & Obelix heroes. My blog is about the switch version but its available on pc, xbox, ps4 and ps5 as well.
Overall opinion
At the moment I have played all classes and tried both endless mode and standard. I love unlocking new cards and artifacts to change my build ideas. You also unlock starting artifacts, these also give lots of new options to power your build. Voice-lines and outfits are also pretty fun to unlock even though they do not change gameplay. I am wondering what more there is that I can unlock. So far they are all really different and creative.
The enemies have enough variety in mechanics and style. When playing more you will start to recognize them but I personally do not think it gets boring or tedious. It also helps that elite and boss enemies also differ. I like this game, it stays interesting enough and is pretty relaxing as well. Do hope that there will be new things or expansions in the future. I have not found any talk of that. There have been Twitch drop campaigns for emotes and outfits so that is cool to look out for.
Is it worth it?
I bought this game in sale, the regular price (eu) is €16,79 at the time of writing this blog. So far I have played 35 hours and I am sure I will play more. For me, this game was totally worth it. The game is engaging enough to want to keep playing and also relaxing enough for me to start it up at the end of a bad day as well. I can play this game with my tablet and pen if I want to and I have moused to much. If you are interested in more info about mouses and ergonomics, I wrote a blog about that and my experiences that this links to.
You can play a free demo of Hellcard on steam. Also, if you have for less then two hours and do not enjoy a game ,you can refund it through steam.
Tips and warnings
- You unlock new cards pretty slowly. I did not mind this but liked playing one class for a while to unlock cards, starting artifacts and torments for that class. If you switch it up a lot this could feel slow.
- You have to read carefully. Some debuffs or torments can demolish specific builds
- If you try co-op through matchmaking, there is no option to kick the other person. Hellcard community in my experience is fun but I have heard otherwise. Just know beforehand that you cannot kick someone and maybe keep it in mind.
- This is a fun deck-builder, if that is what you expect I cannot see any reason to be upset with the game.
Developers and end
Online I have seen a lot of talk about this game on builds and questions about new classes. I am wondering the same thing and would have loved some kind of community for people who play or more contact/ updates from the developers.
This game is made by Thing Thrunk. Before Hellcard they made Book of demons. This is a roguelike dungeon-crawling deck-builder. Their newest title is Book of Aliens, a minimalistic and tactical game, that is a global defense strategy. All these games are made in the same paper dungeon style.
Later on I might try Book of Demons. I am wondering about that game, but do play more of these already and am not sure I will get around to it. Do share your experiences if you have tried it. As always I am open to questions or comments. I wish you lots of fun in your games!
